North Korean Leader Supports Russian Natgas Pipeline to South Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, following a summit meeting with Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev in the Siberian city of Khabarovsk, has expressed support for a proposed Russian project to send Siberian natural gas to South Korea through North Korean territory.

Following the Khabarovsk summit, Russian presidential envoy to the country’s Far East Federal District ,Viktor Ishaev, quoted the North Korean leader as telling him that North Korea will permit the natural gas pipeline to transit its territory if Russia and South Korea eventually conclude a contract for the project, Yonhap news agency reported.

Ishayev told journalists, "If Russia and South Korea do sign a contract on gas deliveries, North Korea is ready to offer territory for the building of a pipeline and to receive income from the pumping of gas and rent for land.

In order that we can deliver roughly ten billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas, new deposits will have to be developed. Only gas from the Sakhalin-3 project and Yakutsk deposits can be exported."

Prior to his summit with Kim Jong-il, Medvedev Russian President directed the head of Russia’s state-owned Gazprom natural gas company Aleksei Miller to draw up a report on the problematic aspects of a natural gas project involving Russia and the two Koreas.

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